most people here watch the ridiculous (talk) shows and and the 24h-no-news-channels all day long.

How on earth did that become a thing here? OK, in airports around the world you'll see news stations always on - but most people don't do that in their homes, do they? Yet it seems like lots of Taiwanese homes just have a TV news channel on all day, the background hum of the day. Don't get me wrong - I like having a background hum - but usually I prefer music, or talk radio of the quieter public variety.

Or maybe I'm out of touch and lots of people in North America do this too.

most people here watch the ridiculous (talk) shows and and the 24h-no-news-channels all day long.

How on earth did that become a thing here? OK, in airports around the world you'll see news stations always on - but most people don't do that in their homes, do they? Yet it seems like lots of Taiwanese homes just have a TV news channel on all day, the background hum of the day. Don't get me wrong - I like having a background hum - but usually I prefer music, or talk radio of the quieter public variety.

Or maybe I'm out of touch and lots of people in North America do this too.

You need to quote the whole post, then it makes more clear ... I said that foreign channels don't have a huge market share here because people watch the background noise as you call it. That's why some foreign channels are gone or won't stay long, it's a cost/advertising issue. MOD is more liberal in that, but cable is not!

most people here watch the ridiculous (talk) shows and and the 24h-no-news-channels all day long.

How on earth did that become a thing here? OK, in airports around the world you'll see news stations always on - but most people don't do that in their homes, do they? Yet it seems like lots of Taiwanese homes just have a TV news channel on all day, the background hum of the day. Don't get me wrong - I like having a background hum - but usually I prefer music, or talk radio of the quieter public variety.

Or maybe I'm out of touch and lots of people in North America do this too.

You need to quote the whole post, then it makes more clear ... I said that foreign channels don't have a huge market share here because people watch the background noise as you call it. That's why some foreign channels are gone or won't stay long, it's a cost/advertising issue. MOD is more liberal in that, but cable is not!

Oh, I was going off-topic. My question wasn't so much about MOD as why it seems like so many homes and apartments in Taiwan seem to always, always, always have news or a talk show blaring away.

Some good news? If you get some kind of sales call from the MOD people, get some Chinese help if you need it. We got to extend our original contract at no extra cost and we picked up the $199 a month movie on Demand Channel for free.

Not a bad collection of movies. Almost all the new videos the local DVD store has. Plus there is a Woody Allen Festival on it now. I can finally watch the movies I've never seen.

Trouble: Does MOD support subtitles? I can't seem to find it. There are a number of Chinese movies there that I want to watch as well. The DVD's have English subtitles.

If anyone else likes Chinese movies, could you draft a letter or a petition we could sign if MOD is indeed capable of delivering subtitles. EDIT: Just discovered that these movies are available on the MOD app as well.

Now that Fox (how I hate their channels!) has taken over from ESPN on cable sports channels, there is no more Premier League or La Liga -- burns me up. On MOD, 170 shows Champions League matches; 179 shows Bundesliga and J League; and 180 (Eurosport) shows Aston Villa, Portuguese League, and occasionally some of the lesser tournaments (U21 Ch. League; Asian Ch. League, some women's intl matches, etc.The problem, for me, with 180 is that it was free last year, but this year they want NT$50 a month to watch it -- it's a great channel -- shows lots of good 'lesser' sports like rugby, Australian football, the bicycle racing tours, curling, skiiing, etc. -- but compared with what I pay for everything else, I feel NT$50 is unreasonable for just one channel, and I can just as well watch high quality streams of whatever they are showing.

Now that Fox (how I hate their channels!) has taken over from ESPN on cable sports channels, there is no more Premier League or La Liga -- burns me up. On MOD, 170 shows Champions League matches; 179 shows Bundesliga and J League; and 180 (Eurosport) shows Aston Villa, Portuguese League, and occasionally some of the lesser tournaments (U21 Ch. League; Asian Ch. League, some women's intl matches, etc.The problem, for me, with 180 is that it was free last year, but this year they want NT$50 a month to watch it -- it's a great channel -- shows lots of good 'lesser' sports like rugby, Australian football, the bicycle racing tours, curling, skiiing, etc. -- but compared with what I pay for everything else, I feel NT$50 is unreasonable for just one channel, and I can just as well watch high quality streams of whatever they are showing.

We get pretty much ALL the channels on MOD, except The Philippine One, and the Porn Channels. Since we don't have Cable TV (crappy channels, crappy picture, crappy service, crappy bundle), it's worth it. I still pay less than I did in 2000 for TV, Internet & Phone...

Adding and removing Services (PVR) and channels at will? Fee, charge? OK, finally.. And I'm afraid to say this. I'm happy with the choices. The last time I said that, that was when digital cable first rolled out a long time ago. After that statement, one buy one all of my channels disappeared.

No, I'm too busy to watch. Or I'm free at the wrong time . I also pay enough for entertainment.

PVR: I am often too busy to watch. Can I hook up PVR for lets say one month. Then disconnect it until their are interesting things to watch again? I understand that I need my own memory stick and that the saved video is scrambled, right? Is their an open way of recording the video. I'm looking at some of those USB TV's that have video in, input. I think my box still has a video out jack. Any other schemes for recording video? I do like holding on to programs, sometimes watching a show six months to a year later. Or it is useful for teaching.

2.I don't think I have the History Channel or other things I would watch rarely. Can I sign on and sign off without changing my long term contract or getting a penalty? Thanks .

Here's a weird one. I wanted to watch the F1 race yesterday so I checked ahead on the programs list for channel #178 (Fox Sports 3 HD) and it showed F1 LIVE from 14:30 ~17:00. When I tuned in (late) at 3pm it was some shitty basketball round up show but the channel content bar at the bottom still showed that it was F1 LIVE. I checked the FOX Sports Asia TV Guide and it listed F1 as being on Fox Sports 2 and not Fox Sports 3 HD. So, are we able to switch between Fox Sports 2 and Fox Sports 3 HD or is it another channel to add (I didn't see it on the list) or are CHT and their programming monkeys just messing up?